


Knitting prompt

by xsunny



Category: Joyeux Noël | Merry Christmas (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23032873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsunny/pseuds/xsunny
Summary: It's a tradition that started after the war, the three families spend Christmas together.
Relationships: Camille Audebert/Anna Audebert (Joyeux Noël), Gordon Mackenzie/Lana Mackenzie (Joyeux Noël), Karl Horstmayer/Christine Horstmayer (Joyeux Noël)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Knitting prompt

**Author's Note:**

> * This is a fan made fiction based on a movie with characters and a plot that are loosely based on something from real life. In no way this is intended to depict facts as they were, or romanticize real life war.  
> * If any of the tags or subjects may trigger you or make you feel uncomfortable, please be safe and don't read this story. 
> 
> This story was written for U_Bahnstation's "knitting" prompt. Be sure to check the stories by her and Darth_Cannizard too. ;)
> 
> Dedicated to L. - may you keep spreading joy, love and light to the world. :)

It's Christmas again, and it's snowing outside. Inside, the three friends - now reserve Captains - and their families reunite in the spacious Audebert's two-story house. 

The smells of freshly baked cake and deliciously cooked duck fill the house. The radio is tuned in a low volume to a station that plays holiday music, including a version of _Adeste fidelis_ sung by Sörensen and Sprink. Together with the Christmas tree surrounded by gifts close to the lit fireplace and the good company for the evening, life couldn't be better for all of them. 

Four kids, with ages varying from six to eight, are playing and running around the house. They don't mind the adults, going from the kitchen, where their mothers are cooking and talking, to the living room, where their fathers are reminiscing about the war. 

While the dinner is not served, the men relax drinking some wine while comfortably sitting at the sofas and recliners. Camille is the first to bring the subject. "Do you still knit?"

"Of course!" Gordon answers without hesitation. "The best hobby a man can have."

Karl and Camille smile fondly.

"I never understood how you could find wool - nevermind the state of mind - to knit in the front." Camille continues, good-naturedly. "I surely envy your tenacity, though."

"A man has to be resourceful, my friend." Gordon fakes seriousness. "Besides, knitting is relaxing and takes your mind from what's happening around you… It actually helped with all going on."

"If you warm the feet, you warm the heart," Horstmayer fondly quotes Mackenzie's words from many years ago. "Jörg almost cried when you gave him that pair of socks. It meant a lot to him." 

"Ponchel liked his pair, too. I admired all those mixed colors and patterns, how you used whatever wool available. Each piece was unique, one and only." Audebert dreams."It's a shame not a single item of those glorious pieces survived the war, I'd have liked to show them to Anna."

Gordon slaps his thighs and barks, "If you have shown my knitting work to your wife, Camille, she would have left you to be with me!"

The three of them laugh. 

As they are about to change the subject, Karl lowers his voice and shares in a conspiratorial tone, "Not all knitting from those times was lost." 

His friends look at him, not understanding. 

Karl slowly pulls his trouser leg up, showing a dark colorful knitted sock over a regular one. "I saved my socks."

His two friends look at him in awe, Gordon whistling. "Man, trust a _boche_ to save socks from a war."

Camille makes to touch it, and Karl puts his leg closer to his friend's hand. 

"It's still so soft!" Audebert exclaims, passing his hand up and down the calf covered in wool.

"Exactly like they were when Gordon first gave them to me on the Blessed Night." Horstmayer proudly states. 

"How? Just how?" Audebert pulls the sock a few times to check the elasticity. 

"I washed them with extreme care." Karl says seriously.

"Like you did at all!" Gordon interjects. "We couldn't wash our uniforms there - or even our underwear! - and you could wash your socks?!" 

"Trust us _boches_ to be resourceful, dear friend." Horstmayer smirks.

"Resourceful my a-" Gordon is interrupted by a loud 'Ahn-ahn' coming from the kitchen, his wife pointing to the general direction where the kids are playing, not allowing him to swear in front of them. "I swear, this woman has super hearing powers..."

"I heard that!" Lana yells from the kitchen, laughing from all three women following shortly.

"So, washing wool socks in the middle of the war, Horst." Audebert tries to suppress his own smile. "How did you do it?"

"Certainly a laborious task that only swearing words could describe," Gordon murmures, looking to the kitchen door.

"Every time we found a clean water source, I'd feel my canteen first and wash them second, together with my uniform if there was enough water." 

"What about drying? How did you manage?" Audebert questions, while Gordon still makes faces to his wife, who watches him from the kitchen door with a predator gaze.

"I'd put them inside my undershirts and leave them to dry, as all those colors could get attention and warn the enemies of our location." Horstmayer jokes. "I'd also let them rest from the hard work from time to time inside my backpack," he remembers thoughtfully, missing Gordon's wife coming in a beeline for her husband who keeps mouthing 'censorship police’ in a loop.

"Nobody made fun of it? You know, an _Oberleutnant_ with colorful knit socks and all..." Audebert asks as he pulls his legs closer to him so Lana can pass and playfully beat her husband with a dishcloth. 

"They knew better then say anything." Horstmayer says with a smug smile. 

"Ouch, woman! Stop it!" Gordon exclaims half jokingly, half seriously. 

"Try me, Gordon!" Lana says while holding her husband's head and fluffing his hair. 

"Need help there?" Audebert asks, and when Gordon starts to answer, he interrupts him, "I meant Lana - do you need help?"

"Thank you, Camille, but I know his weak points." She is now mercilessly tickling him.

"Scottish women, if they fought the war, you'd not had stood a chance," Gordon addresses Horstmayer’s in particular, but means all countries in general.

"I don't doubt it, my friend." Horstmayer answers, smiling. 

"Tell me again, why don't we reunite for one of your holidays for a change? Surely it could have been Hanukkah some days ago, or... " 

"I don't mind it being in Christmas, it was when we all first met after all. Besides, we celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays at home already." 

Meanwhile, Gordon and Lana are looking at each other in a loving way while exchanging words.

"All the better for you and the girls, more holidays to celebrate." Audebert says and Horstmayer nods, good humored. "Should we send reinforcements to the Scottish trenches?" 

"Nah, he will survive the harsh treatment." Horstmayer says and both chuckle. "Besides, they reached Armistice already," he points to Gordon and Lana tenderly kissing, the world around them forgotten.

Audebert and Horstmayer are still talking when Anna calls from the kitchen. "Come, you all, dinner is ready!"

"This way kid number three will be on the way soon enough." Audebert smirks to Horstmayer and points to the couple just behind them coming from the couch, on their way to the kitchen too.

"Maybe the three of you are in for a big surprise sooner than you think, Camille," Christine smiles knowingly to Anna and Lana while they all sit at the beautifully decorated dinner table. “The three of us have something to tell you and the kids over dinner.”

And then they are all together again at a Christmas evening, having one of the best times of their lives. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of the fluffiest stories I've ever written, I hope they are not too out of character, hehe.


End file.
